2009 Stats

Number of books: 163
Number of pages: 40,762
Mean pages/book: 250.07
Books of the world (first book for the country, and read in 2009): 57 + indigenous Australia

1. Outhine Bounyavon; Bounheng Inversin and Daniel Duffy (Eds.): Mother's Beloved: Stories from Laos (Laos)

2. Dar Penney, Peter Stastny, Lisa Rinzler (photographer): The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic

3. Marjane Satrapi: Embroideries

4. M. T. Anderson: The Game of Sunken Places

5. M. T. Anderson: The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen

6. Cecilia Manguerra Brainard: When the Rainbow Goddess Wept (Philippines)

7. Kang Chol-Hwan and Pierre Rigoulot: The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag

8. Neil Gaiman: The Graveyard Book

9. M. T. Anderson: The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 2: The Kingdom on the Waves 

10. Barack Obama: The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream

11. Warren Fellows with Jack Marx: The Damage Done: Twelve Years of Hell in a Bangkok Prison (Thailand)

12. Michael Chabon: The Mysteries of Pittsburgh

13. François Bizot: The Gate

14. Banana Yoshimoto: N.P.

15. Nakagawa Kasumi: Gender-based Violence During the Khmer Rouge Regime: Stories of Survivors from the Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979) (2nd ed.)

16. Richard Totman: The Third Sex: Kathoey--Thailand's Ladyboys 

17. Somaly Mam: The Road of Lost Innocence

18. Nophea Sasaki: Walking away from the Killing Fields: How a Hopeless Boy Became a University Professor in Japan 

19. Nakagawa Kasumi: More Than White Cloth? Women's Rights in Cambodia

20. Daniel Mont: A Different Kind of Boy: A Father's Memoir about Raising a Gifted Child with Autism

21. Xiaolu Guo: A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers 

22. Cullen Thomas: Brother One Cell: An American Coming of Age in South Korea's Prisons  (South Korea)

23. Stephen Levine: A Year to Live: How to Live This Year as If It Were Your Last

24. Michael Webster and Chew Yen Fook: A Photographic Guide to Birds of Thailand

25. Peter Davidson: A Photographic Guide to Birds of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos

26. Elinor Burkett: So Many Enemies, So Little Time: An American Woman in All the Wrong Places

27. Chingiz Aïtmatov: Jamilia (Kyrgyzstan)

28. Barbara Cervone (Ed.): In Our Village: Kambi ya Simba through the Eyes of Its Youth

29. Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin: Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace... One School at a Time (Pakistan)

30. Max Barry: Jennifer Government

31. Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves: Interworld

32. Cory Doctorow: Little Brother

33. Robert Mankoff (Ed.): The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest Book

34. Orson Scott Card: Ender in Exile

35. Ron Kovic: Born on the Fourth of July

36. Stanley Karnow: Vietnam: A History

37. Bertil Lintner and Michael Black: Merchants of Madness: The Methamphetamine Explosion in the Golden Triangle

38. Bibish: The Dancer from Khiva: One Muslim Woman's Quest for Freedom (Uzbekistan)

39. Abdourahman A. Waberi: In the United States of Africa (Djibouti)

40. Daniel Defoe: A Journal of the Plague Year: Being Observations or Memorials of the Most Remarkable Occurrences, as Well Public as Private, Which Happened in London During the Last Great Visitation in 1665. Written  a Citizen Who Continued All the While in London. Never Made Public Before

41. Nu Nu Yi: Smile as They Bow (Burma/Myanmar)

42. Alexandre Najjar: The School of War (Lebanon)

43. Pramoedya Ananta Toer: The Fugitive (Indonesia)

44. Joseph Conrad: The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale

45. M. T. Anderson: Thirsty

46. Fanj Andriamialisoa, Ian Sinclair, and Olivier Langrand: A Photographic Guide to the Birds of the Indian Ocean Islands: Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, Reunion and the Comoros (Madagascar)

47. Eve Brown-Waite: First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria: How a Peace Corps Poster Boy Won My Heart and a Third World Adventure Changed My Life

48. Dave Eggers: What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng: A Novel (Sudan)

49. Rosita Arvigo with Nadine Epstein and Marilyn Yaquinto: Sastun: My Apprenticeship with a Maya Healer (Belize)

50. Stephenie Meyer: Twilight

51. Omar Khayyam and Edward FitzGerald: Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

52. Stephenie Meyer: New Moon

53. Jaan Kaplinski: The Wandering Border (Estonia)

54. Jose da Fonseca and Pedro Carolino; Paul Collins (Ed.): English as She Is Spoke: Being a Comprehensive Phrasebook of the English Language, Written by Men to Whom English Was Entirely Unknown

55. Stephenie Meyer: Eclipse

56. Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) Milestones: Memoirs 1927-1977 (Vatican City)

57. Doris Pilkington: The Rabbit-proof Fence (indigenous Australia)

58. Nancy Mankins: Hostage: The Incredible True Story of the Kidnapping of Three American Missionaries (Panama)

59. Anne Best: The Monk, the Farmer, the Merchant, the Mother: Survival Stories of Rural Cambodia

60. Unknown: Guida fotografica di San Marino ( San Marino)

61. Albert Wendt (Ed.): Some Modern Poetry from the Solomon Islands (Solomon Islands)

62. Hisham Matar: In the Country of Men (Libya)

63. Black Stone: Grace Mera Molisa (Vanuatu)

64. Dreams of a Rainbow (Moemoea a te Anuanua): Kauraka Kauraka (Cook Islands)

65. Hands of My Father: A Hearing Boy, His Deaf Parents, and the Language of Love: Myron Uhlberg

66. Mark Dunn: Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters

67. Vartan Derounian (Photographer) and Alidz Jebijian-Agbabian: Dzalabadig: Images of Survival (Armenia)

68. Blaga Dimitrova: Because the Sea Is Black (Bulgaria)

69. Ts. Bold (Ed.): Some Short Stories from Mongolia (Mongolia)

70. Julie Phillips: James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon

71. Emerson Spartz & Ben Schoen with Jeanne Kimsey: Mugglenet.com's Harry Potter Should Have Died: Controversial Views from the #1 Fan Site

72. Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson: Peter and the Starcatchers

73. Zayd Mutee' Dammaj: The Hostage (Yemen)

74. Dalai Lama XIV: How to See Yourself As You Really Are (Tibet)

75. Kathryn Davis: The Thin Place

76. Elvia Alvarado: Don't Be Afraid Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks from the Heart: The Story of Elvia Alvarado (Honduras)

77. Mohja Kahf: The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf (Syria)

78. Alois Kayser: Nauru One Hundred Years Ago: 3. Games and Sports (Nauru)

79. Helene Cooper: The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood (Liberia)

80. Semisi Nau: The Story of my Life: A Tongan Missionary at Ontong Java (Tonga)

81. Jonathan Stroud: Heroes of the Valley

82. Angelina Jolie: Notes from My Travels: Visits with Refugees in Africa, Cambodia, Pakistan, and Ecuador

83. Ammon Shea: Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages

84. Sarah Vowell: The Partly Cloudy Patriot

85. Stephenie Meyer: Breaking Dawn

86. Yoko Tawada: The Bridegroom Was a Dog

87. Stephenie Meyers: Midnight Sun

88. Harvey Pekar and Anne Elizabeth Moore (Eds.): The Best American Comics 2006

89. William Alexander: The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden

90. Ismail Kadare: The Palace of Dreams (Albania)

91. Steven Hall: The Raw Shark Texts

92. David Standish: The Art of Money: The History and Design of Paper Currency from Around the World

93. Michael Scott: The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

94. Alain Mabanckou: African Psycho (Congo-Brazzaville)

95. David Shipley and Will Schwalbe: Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home

96. Palau: Republic of Palau Ministry of Education: Education Master Plan 2006-2016, Republic of Palau (Palau)

97. Lev Grossman: The Magicians

98. Richardo Keens-Douglas and Annouchka Galouchko: The Nutmeg Princess (Grenada)

99. Rick Riordan: The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book One)

100. Solly Ganor: Light One Candle A Survivor's Tale from Lithuania to Jerusalem (Lithuania)

101. Kris Holloway: Mali: Monique and the Mango Rains: Two Years with a Midwife in Mali (Mali)

102. Edward Steichen: The Family of Man (Luxembourg)

103. Rick Riordan: The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book Two)

104. Jules Verne: Around the World in 80 Days

105. Philip Roth: The Ghost Writer

106. John Le Carre: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

107. Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

108. Michael Palin: Around the World in 80 Days

109. Fyodor Dostoyevsky: Notes from the Underground

110. Stieg Larsson: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

111. Amy Tan: Saving Fish from Drowning

112. Geraldine Brooks: People of the Book

113. Dan Brown: Deception Point

114. Grigore Vieru: Bread and Dew: Stories by a Moldavian Writer (Moldavia)

115. Susan Jane Gilman: Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven

116. Nathacha Appanah: Blue Bay Palace (Mauritius)

117. Anthony Bourdain: Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical

118. Audrey Niffenegger: The Time Traveler's Wife

119. Lev Grossman: The Magicians

120. Bamboté: Daba's Travels from Ouadda to Bangui (Central African Republic)

121. Aravind Adiga: The White Tiger

122. Miriam H. Huggins: Miriam Gone Home: The Life of Sister Huggins (Saint Kitts and Nevis)

123. Princess Grace of Monaco: My Book of Flowers (Monaco)

124. Brian Preston-Campbell: Cool Waters: 50 Refreshing, Healthy Homemade Thirst-Quenchers

125. Rick Riordan: The Titan's Curse ((Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book Three)

126. Gertrude "Cleo" Lythgoe: The Bahama Queen: The Autobiography of Gertrude "Cleo" Lythgoe (Bahamas)

127. Hergé: Tintin in America (Belgium)

128. Thomas Beattie: Labor of Love: The Story of One Man's Extraordinary Pregnancy

129. Sholom Aleichem: The Tevye Stories and Others (Ukraine)

130. Rick Riordan: The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book Four)

131. Norma Khouri: Honor Lost: Love and Death in Modern Day Jordan

132. Professor Sir Themistocles Zammit: Prehistoric Malta: Tarxien Temples and Saflieni Hypogeum (Malta)

133. Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein: Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar Understanding Philosophy through Jokes

134. Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games

135. Samad Beh-Rang: The Little Black Fish

136. Vivian Child: City of Arches: Memories of an Island Capital, Kingstown, St. Vincent and The Grenadines (St. Vincent and the Grenadines)

137. Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck, Queen of Bhutan: Treasures of the Thunder Dragon: A Portrait of Bhutan (Bhutan)

138. Joseph Brahim Seid: Told  Starlight in Chad (Chad)

139. Peter Chapman: Bananas: How the United Fruit Company Shaped the World

140. Benjamin Nugent: American Nerd: The Story of My People

141. Rick Riordan: The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book Five)

142. Gita Mehta: Karma Cola: Marketing the Mystic East

143. Liz Banks: Maldives Musings (Maldives)

144. Muriel Barbery: The Elegance of the Hedgehog

145. Samantha Weinberg: A Fish Caught in Time: The Search for the Coelacanth (Comoros place-holder)

146. Suzanne Collins: Catching Fire

147. J. Maarten Troost: The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific (Kiribati place-holder)

148. Robin McKinley: Sunshine

149. Slavko Janevski: The Bandit Wind Poems (Macedonia)

150. Michael Bell: Scouts in Bondage and Other Violations of Literary Propriety

151. Andy Behrman: Electroboy: A Memoir of Mania

152. Henry Nalaielua: No Footprints in the Sand: A Memoir of Kalaupapa

153. Terri Cheney: Manic: A Memoir

154. Ann Patchett: Bel Canto

155. George W. Staples and Robert H. Cowie: Hawai'i's Invasive Species: A Guide to Invasive Plants and Animals in the Hawaiian Islands

156. Harvey Pekar, Joyce Brabner and Frank Stack: Our Cancer Year

157. Oni Vitandham: On the Wings of a White Horse: A Cambodian Princess's Story of Surviving the Khmer Rouge Genocide

158. Meng-Try Ea and Sorya Sim: Victims and Perpetrators? Testimony of Young Khmer Rouge Comrades (Documentation Series No. 1)

159. Arif K. Abukhudairi: Thoughts of the Times: Introduction to Arabic Literature (Brunei)

160. Gregory Moiseyevich Levin: Pomegranate Roads: A Soviet Botanist's Exile from Eden (Turkmenistan)

161. Thomas Hollowell: Allah's Garden: A True Story of a Forgotten War in the Sahara Desert (Western Sahara)

162. Kevin Kelly: Entertaining Your Indoor Cat: 50 Fun and Inventive Amusements for Your Cat

163. Michael Chabon: Gentlemen of the Road: A Tale of Adventure


Reading goals for 2010:
*104 books

*20 books already in hand as of 1/1/10

*34 Books of the World

Gentlemen of the Road

#394
Title: Gentlemen of the Road
Author: Michael Chabon
Illustrator: Gary Gianni
Publisher: Del Ray/Ballantine
Year: 2007
233 pages

First published serially in The New York Times, this short, picaresque novel follows an unlikely pair of Jewish mercenaries as they become embroiled in the power struggles of the Khazar. Readers from Christian backgrounds may not appreciate how refreshing it is to read a story in which all the main characters are Jewish and are doing something beyond, well, being Jewish. To have the assumption of characters' Christianity replaced by the assumption of their Judaism is a pleasure, and possibly more delightful than the narrative, which is delightful enough. The literary style is young men's adventure plus GRE-level vocabulary.

The book features illustrations in the style of the classical youth adventure tale; a pleasing type style; red headers, numbers, and decorative edging on the first page of each chapter; and a lovely map of the region.

from:
date: Jan. 5th, 2010 06:15 am (UTC)

This was also the joy of living in Israel; being Jewish was just ordinary, normal.

(no subject)

from:
date: Jan. 5th, 2010 03:33 pm (UTC)

Indeed. I remember the first week in Israel--Jewish cops! Jewish bus drivers! And later, even the thrill of Jewish prostitutes! Jewish pickpockets! It was marvelous to be in a community with an assumption of Jewishness. (Which is not to say there were no non-Jews there, or that the treatment of Palestinians is not an issue.)

Entertaining Your Indoor Cat: 50 Fun and Inventive Amusements for Your Cat

#393
Title: Entertaining Your Indoor Cat: 50 Fun and Inventive Amusements for Your Cat
Author: Kevin Kelly
Illustrator: Wendy Crowell
Publisher: Sellers Publishing
Year: 2008
125 pages

A cute compendium of easy-to-build toys and easy-to-engage-in activities for exercising and entertaining indoor cats. Other than referring to the Tunnel of Love before it had been described, the content was reasonably well organized. The tone is affectionate. A couple of activities seem destined to suggest to cats that it's okay to kil your house plants, but hey, de gustibus non est disputandum, right? Also, the author appears to live in a neighborhood without free range dogs; I wouldn't walk my cats on a lead or stake them out without sitting right there.

I note two important missing activities, and a missing variant on some described in the book. 1, Missing activity 1: For maximum cat activity, buy it a pet cat. Missing activity 2: There are no activities that involve prancing about while wearing the cat on your head, juicing its face in your cupped hand, or stretching it along your arm and pretending it's a semi-automatic (Rambo Among the House Plants). 2. Variant: Many of the activities can be enhanced with the "sniffing your butt" option. Any stuffed mouse, hand puppet, laser beam, etc. can approach the cat from the rear. Paired with your cry of "Oh, no! It's sniffing your butt!" this activity adds hours of fun to any game. Thank you. Mr. Meow and I will be here all week.

Allah's Garden: A True Story of a Forgotten War in the Sahara Desert

#392
Title: Allah's Garden: A True Story of a Forgotten War in the Sahara DesertAuthor: Thomas Hollowell
Publisher: Tales Press
Year: 2009
Country: Western Sahara
196 pages

It's not entirely clear why Hollowell left the Peace Corps after a short period of service. Perhaps it's because he kissed a local woman in public and was arrested; perhaps there's more. Either way, his exploration of Morocco brought him into contact with Azeddine Benmansour, a physician who was taken captive by Algerian-backed forces while serving his army time in the disputed Western Sahara. Benmansour, who was held as a POW for 24 years, related his story to Hollowell, who uses anecdotes of his own time in Morocco as a frame. Hollowell's narrative style is earnest, which is a refreshing contrast to some recent world-weary 20- and 30-something authors. Other than the ill-advised kiss, he appears to have been respectful of Moroccan mores and practices. I would have wished for more about Hollowell's experience, but recognize that he didn't want to detract from Benmansour's emotional impact.

For those unfamiliar with the conflict over Western Sahara, a good place to start, and a good point of comparison to more well-known human rights abuses in countries such as Sudan.

Thanks for the review!

from: anonymous
date: Dec. 29th, 2009 02:44 pm (UTC)

Hi  ...: Thomas Hollowell here, the author of Allah's Garden: A True Story of a Forgotten War in the Sahara Desert of Morocco. Thank you for your review of my book! It was a pleasure to happen upon it and your analysis hit the nail on the head; I would have liked to write more about my situation, but I needed to stay focused on Azeddine's plight. In any regard, thanks for reading and writing about it!

Very Best,
Thomas
tom@thomashollowell.com
http://www.allahs-garden.com

Pomegranate Roads: A Soviet Botanist's Exile from Eden

#391
Title: Pomegranate Roads: A Soviet Botanist's Exile from Eden
Author: Gregory Moiseyevich Levin
Translator: Margaret Hopstein
Publisher: Floreant Press
Year: 2006
Country: Turkmenistan
203 pages

Turkmenistan.

Combining pomegranate history and observations with his biography as a pomegranate scientist, Levin also manages to impart a great deal of information about both living through World War II and the effects of the collapse of the Soviet Union on science, scientists, and policy in former Soviet nations.

This may sound dry but it's very interesting and charming. Levin's great love for Turkmenistan and his ambivalence about leaving after 40 years make this the most poignant botany book you're likely to read.

Thoughts of the Times: Introduction to Arabic Literature

#390
Title: Thoughts of the Times: Introduction to Arabic Literature
Author: Arif K. Abukhudairi
Publisher: Fralain Art & Stationers
Year: 1985
Country: Brunei
96 pages

This is a slender compilation of the author's newspaper columns on Arabic literature while he was working in South Korea. They are interesting, and I imagine that he knows what he's talking about, but just asserting something to be true of a poem, or genre, or the status of women doesn't support its truthfulness--I wanted more examples and less simply insisting that he was right. That may be okay for a newspaper column but it wears thin over even a short collection.

I'd like to find something more Brunei-centric, so while I'll tick off the country on my list, I'm still watching for a more representative author.

Victims and Perpetrators? Testimony of Young Khmer Rouge Comrades (Documentation Series No. 1)

#389
Title: Victims and Perpetrators? Testimony of Young Khmer Rouge Comrades (Documentation Series No. 1)
Authors: Meng-Try Ea and Sorya Sim
Year:  2001
Publisher:  Documentation Center of Cambodia
86 pages

I've been looking for something like this for some time. It's collected testimony of (mostly) youth who were impressed into or volunteered for Khmer Rouge service. These young cadres describe their experiences as Khmer Rouge soldiers, farmers, and other roles before and during the Cambodian genocide. Their quotes are lightly contextualized with historical explanation and a framing narrative. There isn't much available that helps the reader understand the experience of Khmer Rouge cadres from their own perspective, so this is a very useful monograph.

On the Wings of a White Horse: A Cambodian Princess's Story of Surviving the Khmer Rouge Genocide

#388
Title: On the Wings of a White Horse: A Cambodian Princess's Story of Surviving the Khmer Rouge Genocide
Author: Oni Vitandham
Year: 2005
Publisher: Tate Publishing
200 pages

My dilemma with Oni Vitandham's narrative is that I'm not sure whether to trust it as an accurate account. I've read a reasonable number of memoirs of people oppressed by the Khmer Rouge, as well as Holocaust memoirs and war narratives, so I'm familiar with the broad genre of survivor memoir. Many seem unlikely, but that's because were it not for a series of coincidences and fortuitous events, the author would have died.

On the other hand, Vitandham's story seems too coincidental or strange to be entirely convincing. For example, she observes that "the cold air turned the decomposing bodies...blue." This is somewhere between Kompong Som and Phnom Penh, but nowhere in Cambodia does the temperature get below 70F. I've seen Cambodians shiver when the temperature drops to 80, but objectively 70 is not low enough to turn a corpse blue. There may be a plausible alternative explanation, but it's not articulated, and this statement certainly jarred me and made me wonder what other "facts" might be incorrect.

My evaluation is further eroded by her reliance on spiritual/metaphysical explanations, which I respect as beliefs but which don't bolster her objective veracity. Yet some of her less-believable explanations don't go anywhere in a way that actually makes me believe her more. For example, she reports that her father was a prince and she was sent to live in a cave as a child for her own protection. Yet in the post-Khmer Rouge era, there doesn't seem to be an attempt (or, at last, a reported attempt) to re-connect with any remnants of this royal family. She also reports essentially a religious prophesy about her return to Cambodia, but she hasn't (yet) returned.

She seems to be a person who has done good for the Cambodian people, and I don't intend to denigrate that by questioning the accuracy of her story, but until I see more support for her narrative, I can't read it as strictly credible. I would be happy to be wrong, so please send me evidence if you have it.

Our Cancer Year

#387
Title: Our Cancer Year
Authors: Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner
Illustrator: Frank Stack
Year: 1994
Publisher: Four Walls Eight Windows
252 pages

Another jury duty waiting room book. This is a graphic memoir of Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner's year or so during which Harvey discovered and was treated for cancer. The story is coherent enough and intertwines with one about Brabner's work (both she and Harvey are comic book writers). Frank Stack's illustrations are sometimes difficult to puzzle out and characters' expressions don't always match their affect. Still, the story and emotions will be familiar to anyone who has been intimately involved with cancer treatment, and the book length and format permit a greater range of nuance than does a standard comic book-sized memoir.

Hawai'i's Invasive Species: A Guide to Invasive Plants and Animals in the Hawaiian Islands

#386
Title: Hawai'i's Invasive Species: A Guide to Invasive Plants and Animals in the Hawaiian Islands
Author: George W. Staples and Robert H. Cowie
Year: 2001
Publisher: Mutual Publishing and Bishop Museum
126 pages

While enjoying the wait to have my juror number called so that I could be dismissed during voir dire (what with the being a psychologist and the relative of a police officer and a person who works pretty directly with state laws and all), I finally was able to read this field guide, which I picked up last December at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu. Staples and Cowie provide useful (if ultimately repetitive) introductory material on invasive species introduced intentionally and unintentionally to the Hawaiian Islands, beginning with the period of Polynesian settlement. They then cover the most common problematic mammals, fish, insects, crustaceans, mollusks, other invertebrates, and plants, providing a more comprehensive overview than many field guides. Good color photos illustrate throughout.

Bel Canto

#385
Title: Bel Canto
Author: Ann Patchett
Year: 2005
Publisher: HarperPerennial
318 pages

I'd call it Grade A beach reading--an interesting story, well-constructed and engaging, that holds one's attention. At the same time, it's a little silly and requires some suspension of disbelief. Still, while reading it I thought "What's going to happen next?" rather than "Why am I reading this rather than something else?" So--better than chick lit, but still a kind of genre fiction. This novel requires one to believe that opera creates an almost magical compulsion toward harmony and connection. I can buy that for purposes of a good beach read.

Manic: A Memoir

#384
Title: Manic: A Memoir
Author: Terri Cheney
Year: 2008
Publisher: William Morrow & Company
245 pages

Cheney tells her story of being bipolar as a series of non-chronological vignettes because that's what having the disorder is like for her--episodic experiences that are vivid but not always easily related. In the tradition of Jamison's An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness, Cheney's account is not only frenetic at times, but also self-reflective and insightful. A sensitive and well-delivered account of how pervasively bipolar disorder can affect one's life.

No Footprints in the Sand: A Memoir of Kalaupapa

#383
Title: No Footprints in the Sand: A Memoir of Kalaupapa
Author:  Henry Kal Nalaielua with Sally-jo Keala-o-anuenue Bowman
Year: 2007
Publisher: Watermark Publishing
192 pages

As a boy, Henry Nalaielua was diagnosed with leprosy, removed from his family, and made an involuntary resident first of a hospital on Oahu, then the leper colony at Kalaupapa on Molokaʻi. His life story is linear and picaresque (and then I did this, and then I did that) but still very interesting, especially his account of daily life in Kalaupapa and the ways his life intersected with aspects of Father Damien's.

One peeve: No, you didn't say "Me yamo" to someone; you said "Me llamo." It's a small point, but it bugs me when people don't correctly represent languages they say they speak.

Electroboy: A Memoir of Mania

#382
Title: Electroboy: A Memoir of Mania
Author: Andy Behrman
Year: 2003
Publisher: Random House
304 pages


Behrman doesn't tell the reader what mania is like; he shows it. Reading Behrman is exhausting in an illuminating way. The frenetic exposition enacts mania nicely. In some ways, so does Behrman's emotional flatness in recounting some of his experiences. The memoir tends toward the linear recounting of events rather than the construction of the more-complex narrative I would have wished for, and I would have preferred more self-reflection at points throughout. Still, it's a very good, unvarnished look at how intoxicating, and how debilitating, bipolar disorder can be.

Scouts in Bondage: And Other Violations of Literary Propriety

 
#381
Title: Scouts in Bondage: And Other Violations of Literary Propriety
Author: Michael Bell
Year: 2006/2007
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
96 pages

This was probably more entertaining at its genesis as a series of shop window displays over time. In that setting, the double entendres and shifts in meaning would have seemed serendipitously found and wittily presented. As a collection of book covers, however, the humor quickly wears thin. This would best be read by placing the book on a stand and turning only one page a day for view. Like dessert, too much at once ceases to be a pleasure.

The Bandit Wind: Poems (The Struga Series of Macedonian Poetry)

#380
Title: The Bandit Wind: Poems (The Struga Series of Macedonian Poetry)
Author: Slavko Janevski
Translator: Charles Simic
Year: 1991
Publisher: Dryad Press
Country: Macedonia
80 pages

An engaging collection of poems by Macedonian Slavko Janevski, generally better than many I've read recently because it's translated by the excellent poet Charles Simic. A helpful introduction situates the poet in Macedonia's historical and geopolitical context. This is a dual language Macedonian-English collection, permitting an examination of Simic's translation with the original (and for the to find Russian-Macedonian cognates and loan words). Some notes on the poems follow their presentation. The poems themselves are generally vivid and imagistic, not pastoral, and quite visceral (literally--the last set is from a collection called "Anatomy"). An interesting and enjoyable collection.

Sunshine

#379
Title: Sunshine
Author: Robin McKinley
Year: 2004
Publisher: Jove Books
405 pages

I have very mixed feelings about this book. I loved the story, I loved the progression of events, I loved the world-making. I loved the unseen aspects of this world that the characters referenced matter-of-factly and to which  the reader was not privy. This aspect reminded me of David Brin's Glory Season. Yet at many points, the narrative is so loosely woven that that plot falls right out of it. At the end, I was sure there was a sequel--I couldn't imagine that McKinley's editor would let her leave so many gaping holes. Alas, there is no sequel and none is planned. Threads that could have been looped back in are not, leaving the reader with the impression that McKinley is lazy, a cheater, or both. Characters and relationships that appeared to be important or to have greater significance are discarded, showing that they were just devices to advance the story and that the reader's investment was misplaced. This lack of even tidying up, much less resolving plot tensions, reeks of sloppiness and contempt for the reader, and dissuades me from reading McKinley again. If you choose to read Sunshine, enjoy it for what it is, but don't expect secondary plots to bear fruit, and don't interpret the mystery of it as skill--it's just imagination without adequate craft to make something elegant of the whole. What a shame.

The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific

#378
Title: The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific
Author: J. Maarten Troost
Year: 2004
Publisher: Broadway Books
Country: Kiribati (place holder)
288 pages

Kiribati.

A placeholder, I hope.

No sex, no cannibals, but Troost is certainly adrift. While his girlfriend does work, which I'd actually like to read about, Troost hangs around, surfs, makes minor repairs, doesn't write a novel, misses beer when the shipment doesn't come, complains more than admires, and makes pronouncements about the people of Kiribati. Every once in a while he hits it just right, but his attempts to be worldly or arch mostly fall far short of the goal. One hope Troost's style and focus have matured in subsequent books. One hopes his girlfriend writes a book one of these days.

Catching Fire: The Hunger Games #2

#377
Title: Catching Fire: The Hunger Games #2
Author: Suzanne Collins
Year: 2009
Publisher: Scholastic
391 pages

As in the first installment, poor Katniss just wants to be left alone. Following her success in the Hunger Games, her relationships are strained and she is under scrutiny. Though she tries hard to be unobtrusive and to do as she's told for the sake of her family and community, she is caught up in the political whirlwind her victory unwittingly caused. Frightened and disgruntled, she must again compete for her life.

Some reviewers complain that this volume doesn't advance the romantic plot, but I believe it does, in that no matter what the protagonist does, it's a problem. That sense of helplessness and frustration is important to the overall plot as well as this sub-plot. Whether Collins can resolve this dilemma without resorting to too much convenient deus ex machina remains to be seen. The projected release date for volume 3 is August, 2010.

A Fish Caught in Time: The Search for the Coelacanth

 
#376
Title: A Fish Caught in Time: The Search for the Coelacanth
Author: Samantha Weinberg
Year: 2000
Publisher: HarperCollins
Country: Comoros (place-holder)
240 pages

Weinberg describes the discovery of the coelacanth (or perhaps the "discovery," since the fishing communities knew it was there even if scientists didn't). The story is engagingly told and contributes to the reader's understanding of the historical and political context of the fish as well as its natural history. An easy and interesting book. Some reviewers have notes some inaccuracies; I can't speak to this, so caveat emptor.

It's not clear how much time Weinberg spent in Comoros, so this will be my placeholder for that country until I read something else.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog

#375
Title: The Elegance of the Hedgehog
Author: Muriel Barbery
Translator: Alison Anderson
Year: 2006/2008
Publisher: Europa Editions
325 pages

Here I will beg to differ from many of my online friends and people whose opinions I admire. I was willing to live with the book's premise and the protagonist's unpleasantly classist world view. I was willing to suspend disbelief and manage the general preciousness of the characters. I endured scores of pages of tedious and sophomoric philosophical rambling. The payoff for this was the idea that it's okay to be dead if your heart is in the right place. Or maybe it's if you're enlightened. Or just a person who admires interior decorating. Unless you're a child. What looked like it might resolve in an interesting way turned out to be a one-trick pony. I'll get my wabi sabi elsewhere from now on.

Maldives Musings

#374
Title: Maldives Musings
Author: Liz Banks
Year: 2004
Publisher: Upfront Publishing
Country: Maldives
91 pages

I greatly admire small press and self-publishing. I think it's admirable. However, the author loses the editorial perspective that can turn a personal narrative into one of universal appeal. This is especially obvious in books whose conceit is "letters home." While they may have been meaningful and fascinating to the writer and recipients, they may lack general interest and necessary context. For example, I wrote about 400 letters home when I worked in another country. They're just not that diverting. Published as is, they would be tedious to read, even, perhaps, for those of us who were there at the time. If I were to edit them, retaining portions about my psychological and emotional development, events that might resonate for others, and non-idiotic cultural observations, I would have perhaps 25-50 potentialy compelling but disjointed pages of narrative and observations. That's not a good book, either. If I felt a need to retain the "letters home" format, my story might be served best by a pastiche that includes letters, journal entries, reflections, and a bridging narrative.

These speculations also constitute my advice to Liz Banks. I want to know about her experience in Maldives. I want to know what the experience meant to her. I want to understand the difference between her home culture and life in a very different country. Though sections of Maldives Musings present these topics, they are fragmented, and (because they are written to those at home) assume that I know what home is like, or what Banks is like. Because I don't, the funny parts often aren't funny, the observations that rely on cultural contrast sometimes are puzzling, and I'm left wanting to know much more about what she was actually doing on a typical day in her role as a midwife trainer with Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO). An editor could have helped Banks simply by asking questions.

This memoir will give you some insight into the culture and people of Maldives, but probably not as much as you hoped for when you picked it up.

Karma Cola: Marketing the Mystic East

    
#373
Title: Karma Cola: Marketing the Mystic East
Author: Gita Mehta
Year: 1994
Publisher: Vintage
208 pages

Best read as a collection of essays on related themes, not a progressive essay in parts. Mehta's classic is still highly relevant, though perhaps less startling than it would have been on publication 30 years ago. Her primary topic is the atomizing and commodification of culture, illustrated by examples of both naive and pragmatic responses by Westerners and Indians. Most of the essays are well-written and enjoyable to read; some are too divorced by time and culture from their catalysts and are therefore less explicable. If I were teaching a cross-cultural sociology class, I'd use Karma Cola as a starting point.

The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book Five)

#372
Title: The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book Five)
Author: Rick Riordan
Year: 2009
Publisher: Hyperion
381 pages

A satisfying resolution to the 5-book series. Riordan wraps up the majority of loose ends while introducing a few good twists. Percy enters a new phase of maturity and sophistication, action is resolved, and the door is held open for another series.

American Nerd: The Story of My People

#371
Title: American Nerd: The Story of My People
Author: Benjamin Nugent
Year: 2008
Publisher: Scribner
225 pages

This memoir-cum-treatise is hard to classify because Nugent mixes genres. Part memoir, part sociology, part speculation, it does not cohere as much as this nerd reviewer would like.

Speaking of this reviewer, I must say that Nugent does a poor job of characterizing female nerds. I know that I'm a nerd because I was told so; just as Jews may agonize about whether they're really Jewish, and nerds may endlessly dissect their relationship to nerdiness, the bottom line is, when they come for the Jews, will they come for you? The answer is, when they come for the nerds, they will come for me, because the minutiae of determining nerd versus something else is a nicety of no import to Those Who Come for Nerds.

Nugent, by the way, dabbles in nerd-dom but attempts to renounce it and distance himself from it. What a nerd.

Bananas: How the United Fruit Company Shaped the World

#370
Title: Bananas: How the United Fruit Company Shaped the World
Author: Peter Chapman
Year: 2007
Publisher: Canongate
240 pages

Three stars for content, one star for writing style, so two stars overall. Chapman presents very interesting information rather haphazardly, leaving many questions unanswered. In addition, he's a pretty clunky writer. The reader has to work to follow his inexplicable mid-paragraph topic changes and unfortunate grammar.

The content is worth it, if the reader perseveres. Chapman provides some background on bananas' natural history and modern banana culture. He associates this with the history of the United Fruit Company, focusing on its agricultural practices (monoculture, pesticides) and political practices (monopolies, underhanded dealings, colluding with military forces to take over countries (whence, apparently, the phrase "banana republic"), and intimidation.

It's a useful story to consider as we examine the espoused and covert roles of the U.S. in the Middle East. Unfortunately, Chapman makes it hard to keep reading.

Told by Starlight in Chad

#369
Title: Told by Starlight in Chad
Author: Joseph Brahim Seid
Translator: Karen Haire Hoenig
Year: 2007
Publisher: Africa World Press, Inc.
Country: Chad
81 pages

Seid recreates fables--some religious, some moral, some just stories--from his native Chad. They were pleasant to read, and gave some background of the Chadian people. They are probably better heard than read. I wasn't especially engaged by this, but it was a nice change of pace.

Treasures of the Thunder Dragon: A Portrait of Bhutan

#368
Title: Treasures of the Thunder Dragon: A Portrait of Bhutan
Author: Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck, Queen of Bhutan
Year: 2006
Publisher: Viking (Penguin India)
Country: Bhutan
223 pages

Part memoir, part travelogue, this book by the oldest of the four queens of Bhutan describes not only Wangchuck's life, but the history and contemporary cultures of Bhutan. In addition, she focuses on the difficult-to-attain balance between traditional ways and contemporary life. The road that allows remote villagers to get to market or medical care also brings exodus from the villages and the erosion of cultural values. Wangchuck's descriptions of spirituality were enjoyable and well-written, as were the sections describing her travels and the communities of Bhutan. I would have wished for more about how she felt about marrying the king, and more detail about that period of her life, but it may not be politic or culturally appropriate for her to tell that story.

City of Arches: Memories of an Island Capital, Kingstown, St. Vincent & The Grenadines

#367
Title: City of Arches: Memories of an Island Capital, Kingstown, St. Vincent & The Grenadines
Author: Vivian Child Year:
Publisher: Cybercom Publishing
Country: St. Vincent & The Grenadines
157 pages

Vivian Child, a medical doctor, wrote and illustrated a newspaper column on the architectural features, and sometimes history, of houses and other buildings in Kingstown on St. Vincent. Dr. Child has a particular interest in the form of the arches that fronted many of the early arcades. Her illustrations are both from life and from historical photographs.

I enjoyed reading this collection of newspaper columns as much for the stories about who owned the buildings and the uses to which they were put as for the lesson in island architecture. If I were to travel to Kingstown, I'd bring the book along for comparison.

The Little Black Fish

#366
Title: The Little Black Fish
Author: Samad Beh-Rang
Illustrator: Arien Walizadeh
Translator: Ruby Emam
Year: 2008
Publisher: AuthorHouse
32 pages

Although the translator says Beh-Rang is from Azerbaijan-Iran, and other sources call him Azerbaijani, this turns out to mean ethnically and linguistically Azerbaijani but as far as country, Iranian. People self-publish for a variety of reasons, and I don't have a problem with that. I wish, though, that they would run the manuscript by a professional proofreader before they published. There are enough problems here to intrude on the storytelling.

The little black fish is held up as a moral and developmental example. I can't say how good an exemplar he is of Azerbaijani-Iranian manhood. The story appears to be a classic. However, I can say that I didn't like the little black fish or admire his behavior. While the illustrations might tempt me to show the book to others, I can't see giving it to a child. These are not my cultural or moral standards, or the ways I want my children to behave.

The Hunger Games

#365
Title: The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins
Year: 2008
Publisher: Scholastic
374 pages

Another terrific young adult F&SF novel from Scholastic. This one, the first in a trilogy, introduces Katniss, a strong adolescent female protagonist living in a what appears to be the Appalachia of a dystopian future. To underscore their ongoing servitude, the Districts must send randomly-chosen tributes each year to battle each other to the death. It's the logical extension of reality television, so when Katniss is sent to the games, she is also groomed to be more attractive to sponsors. Throughout the novel Katniss is pulled into deeper deception and intrigue, though she really just wants to be left alone.

For other young adult fantasy where the protagonist must compete in very serious "games," compare MacHale's The Quillan Games and John Christopher's classic Tripods series, beginning with The White Mountains. Or, really, many episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series.

Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar...: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes

#364
Title: Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar...: Understanding Philosophy through Jokes
Authors: Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein
Year: 2007
Publisher: Abrams Image
208 pages

Entertaining enough, with some good jokes, some of which were good examples of the philosophical school or concept they purported to illustrate, some, not so much. I'm not sure if knowing more philosophy or less would make this a more enjoyable collection, but I found myself getting hung up on jokes that didn't seem to show what they were intended to.

Prehistoric Malta: Tarxien Temples and Saflieni Hypogeum

#363
Title: Prehistoric Malta: Tarxien Temples and Saflieni Hypogeum
Author: Professor Sir Themistocles Zammit
Introduction, illustrator, photographer: Ing. Karl Mayrhofer
Year: 1994 (1929 and 1935 original booklets)
Publisher: Interprint Limited
Country: Malta
96 pages

Apparently a reprint of two earlier pamphlets or monographs. Though I'd have liked a little more background information, this exposition on Malta's archaeology was extremely interesting, enough so that I have added Malta to list of places I'd like to visit. (September, 2013: Did it! Fabulous temples.) The temples are interesting, but the Hal-Seflieni Hypogeum, an extended underground facility, is totally cool.  I would have preferred more information on the uses of the structures and the meanings of the decorative motifs, but these may not have been known at the time of publication.

You can find better photos by searching for the key words in image search (for example, Malta Tarxien Saflieni Hypogeum), including some (or very similar) shots that appear in the book in black and white.

The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson & The Olympians, Book Four)

#361
Title:  The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson & The Olympians, Book Four)
Author: Rick Riordan
Year: 2008
Publisher: Miramax/Hyperion
361 pages

This fourth installment of five picks up the pace and tension as the threat of world domination by the Titan Kronos becomes increasingly likely. Meanwhile, because Percy is a young adolescent, his emotional entanglements are powerfully distracting. Lots of fast action, an interesting take on Daedalus, and girl trouble make this an enjoyable, quick read.

There's a nice Percy Jackson wiki at http://percyjackson.wikia.com/wiki/Main_

Page

Honor Lost: Love and Death in Modern-Day Jordan

#362
Title: Honor Lost: Love and Death in Modern-Day Jordan
Author: Norma Khouri
Year: 2003
Publisher: Atria Books
Country: Jordan
217 pages

Originally billed as a memoir, now pretty conclusively revealed to be fiction. In a way I was glad to learn this, since the story contained puzzling discrepancies (for example, and glaringly, why would the families allow the young women to operate a unisex salon?). In addition, the story was told with such chick-lit bathos that I felt bad because I couldn't muster up sympathy for the women in this dreadful situation. I'm glad it turns out to be fiction, and not a regrettable failure of empathy on my part.

The plot, which can be summarized as "boy meets girl, girl dies" would be tragic if true, and is tragic in the greater sense that women are victims of honor (sic) killings in the world at large. Had this work been represented as fiction, I would comment on how this theme was expressed in the novel. Since it was represented as a memoir, however, I have the same bad feelings about Khouri that I do about James Frey. I think it's disgusting for writers to co-opt the horrific experiences that others have suffered and represent them as their own. or this reason, though I could count this novel for Jordan in my Books of the World Challenge (since Khouri was born in Jordan and lived there for for 2-3 years. However, I'd rather read a book by a writer who hasn't attempted to deceive me.

The Tevye Stories and Others

#360
Title: The Tevye Stories and Others
Author: Sholom Aleichem
Translators: Julius and Frances Butwin
Introduction: Frances Butwin
Year: 1965
Publisher: Pocket Books
Country: Ukraine
252 pages

This collection organizes Tevye the Milkman stories from Aleichem's oeuvre in more-or-less chronological order. They are interspersed with non-Tevye stories to effectively create the sense of the passage of time. Readers who know Tevye only from Fiddler on the Roof will recognize some anecdotes, and Tevye's essential character, while also seeing how Aleichem's material was adapted for stage and what was omitted.

While there is an enduring humor to Tevye's absurdity, and some family and community dysfunction is universal, I'm not sure how funny some of this material is for people who grew up with no Yiddishkeit. So much of what is entertaining about Tevye is his approach to the world, a heavily syncretic blend of Eastern European Jewish culture, Tanakhic and Talmudic misquotes, and self-serving rhetoric. Without some experience sorting out one's Uncle Morty's use and abuse of received wisdom, I don't know how well this would translate culturally. Perhaps it would help to first read Leonard Q. Ross/Leonard Rosten's classic The Education of H*y*m*a*n K*a*p*l*a*n and either Wex's Born to Kvetch or Rosten's The Joys of Yiddish.

Labor of Love: The Story of One Man's Extraordinary Pregnancy

#359
Title: Labor of Love: The Story of One Man's Extraordinary PregnancyAuthor: Thomas Beatie
Year: 2008
Publisher: Seal
335 pages

A provocative autobiography by a transman. The central question Beatie raises is what makes a person a man. This is often a major theme in memoirs by trans people; the twist here is that Beatie carries a child after having transitioned to being male. This gives the question of gender a very interesting spin and a particular urgency: How does the medical establishment respond? What privacy and control do Beatie and his partner relinquish in order to have a child? Should medical forms for pregnancies not assume that the person giving birth is female? How does the reader understand a pregnant man? I was much more taken by this autobiography than I thought I would be. The title and summary concerned me, in that it seemed like a schtick. a way to distinguish his book from those of other trans people. It's a measure of Beatie's ability to describe his experiences and decision-making that by the end I largely admire this narrative.

The Adventures of Tintin in America

#358
Title: The Adventures of Tintin in America
Author: Hergé
Translators: Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper and Michael Turner
Year: 1945/1979
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Country: Belgium
64 pages

I had never read a Tintin book before, so I was delighted to learn that Hergé was Belgian and that I could read one for my world books challenge. I enjoyed the illustrations, including some clever incidental material. It was easy enough to figure out relationships and a certain amount of the characters' history, but I imagine that there would be slightly better flow if I had more familiarity with the series. However, even allowing for this, I thought the plot was rather disjointed. There is some racism that would not appear in a contemporary comic, though considering the era, the attitude is more sympathetic than I would imagine a U.S. comic to be.

The Bahama Queen: The Autobiography of Gertrude "Cleo" Lythgoe: Prohibition's Daring Beauty: Including With the Whiskey Smugglers by H. De Winton Wigley

#357
Title: The Bahama Queen: The Autobiography of Gertrude "Cleo" Lythgoe: Prohibition's Daring Beauty: Including With the Whiskey Smugglers by H. De Winton Wigley
Authors: Gertrude "Cleo" Lythgoe and H. De Winton Wigley
Year: 1964/2007 (Lythgoe), 1923/2007 (Wigley)
Publisher: Flat Hammock Press
Country: The Bahamas
240 pages

A fascinating look at liquor-related commerce during Prohibition, told by a female entrepreneur who ran alcohol from the Bahamas to the US. Though the style is clumsy and simply moves from event to event, the story is fascinating. Perhaps equally interesting is the portrait of the Bahamas and the U.S. at this time. This volume includes many photos and Wigley's long article or pamphlet about Lythgoe and others, smugglers and legal transporters to the nautical border alike.

The Titan's Curse (Percy Jackson & The Olympians, Book Three)

#356
Title: The Titan's Curse (Percy Jackson & The Olympians, Book Three)
Author: Rick Riordan
Year: 2007
Publisher: Miramax/Hyperion
312 pages

As the third in the series of five, I'd expect this book to be the emotional hinge. Though there was plenty of interesting action, I didn't find it as compelling as the first two. Instead of marking a turning point in Percy's development, it seemed more like a transitional adventure. Interpersonal dynamics are foreshadowed but not yet fully available to the reader. Fortunately, it picks back up with the fourth book.

Cool Waters: 50 Refreshing, Healthy, Homemade Thirst Quenchers

#355
Title: Cool Waters: 50 Refreshing, Healthy, Homemade Thirst Quenchers
Author: Brian Preston-Campbell
Photographer: Jerry Errico
Year: 2009
Publisher: The Harvard Common Press
96 pages 

A nice collection of recipes for flavored water, both sparkling and still. Its focus is drinks that are not highly sweetened, which is good for people watching both glycemic load and calories. The lightly sweet or unsweetened drinks are easier to pair with a greater variety of food. One or two recipes missed a step or ingredient, but the missing information could be filled in from context. A good gift book.

My Book of Flowers

#354
Title: My Book of Flowers
Authors: Princess Grace of Monaco with Gwen Robyns
Year: 1980
Publisher: Doubleday
Country: Monaco
224 pages 

A commonplace book on the theme of flowers, this oversized volume by Princess Grace is conversational but erudite. She describes her own garden and interests in flower arranging and dried flower compositions (with photos), then moves on to flowers in history, poetry, and the like. Enjoyable for browsing or a straight read-through.

Miriam Gone Home: The Life of Sister Huggin

#353
Title: Miriam Gone Home: The Life of Sister Huggins
Author: Miriam H. Huggins
Year: 2006
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Country: Saint Kitts and Nevis
262 pages 

Saint Kitts and Nevis.

This is a hard book to review. On the one hand, I appreciated the look inside the mind of this very religious author. On the other hand, I didn't like what I saw there. Huggins is judgmental, strict about doctrine (when it suits her to criticize others) and, apparently, constantly besieged by vicious congregants, witchcraft-wielding neighbors, and devils. I have no doubt that this is how she experienced her life as an abused and neglected child on Nevis and later as a lay minister (or minster's wife). I do doubt that I would have interpreted events the same way if I were observing her. By the time she got to her enthusiasm for converting the Jews I had to make myself keep reading, and though I was sorry that she died of cancer, I would have sent her family my condolences from a distance. Her memoir does provide a great deal of indirect information about synchretic Christianity and the difficulty of ministering when other religious beliefs and traditions are covertly practiced or integrated into the community's (and minister's) culture.

I doubt that witchcraft exists, but I am willing to suspend my disbelief because I have no call to argue with the author about the nature of reality. Mostly, though, this memoir strikes me as a life narrative by a depressive, somewhat paranoid, and perhaps abrasive person who somatizes and externalizes her stress in the form of vague physical symptoms that she attributes to maliciousness and the devil. That some of her children also confirm and experience these phenomena convinces me only that there are cultural and perhaps psychological factors at play. In the end, I am glad her faith sustained her, but her story makes me sad.

The White Tiger

#352
Title: The White Tiger
Author: Aravind Adiga
Translator: John Buchanan-Brown
Year: 2008
Publisher: Free Press
304 pages

Read as an audiobook with an excellent reader.
Well-narrated, quick, wry and entertaining, though not without its moral dilemmas, which include self-centeredness, classism and stereotyping perpetuated even by those who see themselves as enlightened or different, disloyalty, murder, and the question of whether living in "the darkness" and a corrupt social surround explain, justify, or let one off the hook for one's actions. I'd have rated it higher if the narrator made a better acknowledgment of the effects of his actions on his family. This seems to be an authorial omission, since the shape of the narrative cries out for it.

Read with Michelle Cliff's No Telephone to Heaven for more on post-colonial iniquity,inequity, and rage.

Daba's Travels from Ouadda to Bangui

#351
Title: Daba's Travels from Ouadda to Bangui
Author: [Makombo] Bamboté
Translator: John Buchanan-Brown
Illustrator: George Ford
Year: 1970
Publisher: Pantheon
Country: Central African Republic
174 pages 

This middle readers novel about a boy in the Central African Republic is a somewhat diluted bildungsroman, most interesting for its descriptions of the boy's daily life. While the village scenes are illuminating, the fluid and dynamic illustrations are its most charming and noteworthy element.

The Magicians

#350
Title: The Magicians
Author: Lev Grossman
Year: 2009
Publisher: William Heinemann
406 pages 

Better as an idea than in the execution. Grossman uses a fantasy frame and tropes to tell a story of youth alienation. Unfortunately, Grossman seems more contemptuous than admiring of the genre. The jokes (many Harry Potter and Narnia-based) quickly become brittle, then stale. It's too bad, because the possibilities are excellent, and Grossman's inclusion of Jewish imagery brings a fresh perspective to the genre (imagine Harry Potter thinking a magical text looks like the Talmud). The story itself is simply not able to deliver on its compelling premise, degenerating into a jumbled, boring blur of drinking and immaturity. The characters remain flat and grow unlikeable over time. Plot points amble and some are ultimately dropped, perhaps out of an authorial ennui that parallels that of his world-weary 20-something characters. The ending is pat, disappointing, and unearned.

The Time Traveler's Wife

#349
Title: The Time Traveler's Wife
Author: Audrey Niffenegger
Year: 2003
Publisher: Harcourt
556 pages

Audiobook here.

As with all time travel narratives, the structure was an important element, here executed well. The resolutions of  plot points were managed relatively tidily. The middle of the book moved slowly, though it could be argued that it was necessary both for establishing a domestic interval and for developing the theme that love doesn't solve all of the problems experienced by Odysseus afloat on the sea of time.

I did not enjoy the audiobook, which I interspersed with the physical book. The Henry reader sounded jaded, bored, and Humbert Humbert-like.

Typhoid Mary

#348
Title: Typhoid Mary
Author: Anthony Bourdain
Year: 2001/2005
Publisher: Bloomsbury
156 pages

Bourdain's breezy essay on Mary Mallon is less factual than speculative, more of a pensée focused on cooks' employment and circumstances than a biography or social  history. Some of his assertions are a stretch, and others are factually incorrect. It could have used a good edit for accurate content and consistent style. For maximum effect, read with Susan Sontag's Illness as Metaphor and Gina Kolata's Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It.

Blue Bay Palace

#347
Title: Blue Bay Palace
Author: Nathacha Appanah
Translator: Alexandra Stanton
Year: 2004/2009
Publisher: Aflame Books
Country: Mauritius
106 pages

What I liked best about this novel were the descriptions of Mauritius and the articulation of the relationships between rich and poor. As a novel, it's not as interesting as it could be because it relies on the "then I went crazy" plot device. The descriptions of the beaches and towns are eloquent, but the emotional content is less well-rendered. As in so many accounts of thwarted love, both actual and fictional, the protagonist can't muster up the wherewithal to kill her estranged beloved, but instead destroys the object of her beloved's affections or marriage. This "kill the other woman" strategy always puzzles me, especially in situations where the other woman had no choice but to marry the man.

Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven: A Memoir

#346
Title: Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven: A Memoir
Author: Susan Jane Gilman
Year: 2009
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
314 pages
As Keath Fraser's anthology Bad Trips amply illustrates, travel is fraught with difficulties and unexpected events, of which only some are humorous. Gilman tells the story of her out-of-college, around-the-world trip with Brown University acquaintance "Claire." It starts like any travelogue that recounts the misadventures of young travelers out of their depth. However, it's quickly clear that something is wrong with Claire, and in the context of the People's Republic of China in the mid-1980's, this becomes rapidly more perilous for both young women. Gilman does an excellent job of conveying her state at the time as well as her later reflections on these events. She is especially sensitive and astute about the effects of cultural dislocation on even a healthy traveler. A terrific memoir for inexperienced travelers, not because it is frightening (which it is), but because of the self-reflection and planning it may stimulate.

Bread and Dew: Stories by a Moldavian Writer

#345
Title: Bread and Dew: Stories by a Moldavian Writer
Author: Grigore Vieru
Illustrator: Eduard Zaryansky
Translator: James Riordan
Year: 1983 (translation)
Publisher: Raduga Publishers Moscow
Country: Moldavia
43 pages

A beautifully illustrated children's book from Soviet Moldavia, written by Moldavian poet Grigore Vieru. He presents several very short stories about a young boy named Doru. A couple, including the title story, are quite touching; most are heavy-handed moral tales with a strong Soviet message.

Deception Point

#344
Title: Deception Point
Author: Dan Brown
Year: 2001
Publisher: Pocket
568 pages

Cringe-inducing in the manner of The Day after Tomorrow. First, within the actual Thriller genre, it was unpredictable not because it developed suspense, but because the action was highly artificial, Byzantine, and encumbered with red herrings. I'm also fairly certain that the omniscient narrative voice actually lies and misrepresents what some of the key characters are thinking, misdirecting the reader rather than leading her astray by clever omission. However, I'm not willing to subject myself to more contact with it by going back in for examples. Second, because although some of the ideas are interesting, people who aren't science fiction writers write science fiction badly. Third, because, as in The Day after Tomorrow, the science itself is so laughable. To give one example that should not spoil much: Some people are dragged at high speed along Arctic ice, including hills. They fall onto a partially calved iceberg. The iceberg falls to the sea (200 feet, if I recall). It submerges in water that has previously been described as being so cold that it feels like acid on the skin. The iceberg bobs up and levels. The people lie there for several minutes. Not a one of them even has frostbite, to say nothing of frozen eyeballs or death by Arctic dunking. And this is only one example. If internal consistency and authorial honesty are important to you, don't waste your time.